Gender Differences in Adolescent Body Image on Social Media: A Qualitative Study Review

AUTHOR: Arina Bolsakova

Introduction

In an era where appearances are constantly being evaluated and idealized online, adolescents are growing up under increasingly more social pressure. As appearance-focused content has dominated online platforms, social media has emerged as a powerful force, influencing how young people perceive themselves and their bodies today. One study that examines this closely is a study conducted by Mahon and Devey (2021), which examines the effects of social media on body image of adolescents, defining body dissatisfaction as an individual’s negative thoughts about their own body, which affects psychological well-being. Research by the Pew Research Center (2018) indicates that the now-prominent use of social media by adolescents may cause this body dissatisfaction, with adolescents being particularly vulnerable to body dissatisfaction because of their developing identities. The developers of the Tripartite model, Thompson et al. (1999), explained the role of social media in describing the importance of appearance in society, finding that social media led to people comparing their bodies and those with a desired appearance to be considered “superior”. Edcoms and Credos (2016)adds that of this superiority, celebrities are at the forefront, with celebrities being presented in a positive light through social media which promotes body ideals and unrealistic beauty standards. Presenting similar information in a different study, Chua and Chang (2016), exploring adolescent comparison through social media, explain that editing photos on social media encourages body image comparison online. Additionally, this body comparison seems to have the most prominent effects on adolescent girls, as it is found that adolescent girls are more likely to engage in this online comparison than boys, primarily due to the fact that adolescent girls engage more with body-related content than boys. Additionally, boys are found to have a more positive social media experience than girls who are more likely to report body image issues caused by social media (Chua & Chang, 2016). This phenomenon was explored in depth by Mahon and Devey further, who had the project goal of researching the impacts of body-related content on social media on adolescents’ body image. 

Design

The qualitative study run by Mahon and Devey was developed with focus groups, aiming to investigate how adolescents manage body-related content and promote positive body image content on social media. Focus groups allow for the researchers to have insight about the opinions and experiences of participants. The study was conducted on a convenience sample of 29 participants, 23 girls and 6 boys aged between 15 and 16 who were recruited from an Irish secondary school. All participants were active on social media and had parental consent to participate in the study. The study uses four groups formed based on class groups of participants: three with girls only and one group with boys only. Each group contained 6-9 participants and the groups were interviewed in sessions taking place at school, with each focus group only lasting between 15 and 30 minutes. Adolescents were asked open-ended interview questions to talk about their experiences with body image content and social media from their own perspectives,with responses being recorded to be later transcribed by the researchers. Some of the questions in the interview included 1) What social media activities/behaviors do you think help/harm body image perceptions? and 2) What characteristics of social media platforms positively promote body image/negatively impact body image? The analysis of the interviews included utilizing the transcribed conversation and semantic coding to relate participant answers to the research question. The researchers gathered themes from the participants’ responses to figure out the results and common ideas between individuals. In order to increase result credibility, the researchers acknowledged their biases based on their social status, gender, and race which could affect their body image perceptions. 

Results 

Within the results of the study, it was found that some adolescents used avoidant strategies, which included avoiding body-related content on social media, while others looked at positive content in order to avoid body image issues. It was also reported that girls didn’t select as much positive body-related content because they viewed all body-related content negatively. Another key finding from the results portion of the study was the phenomenon that participants often didn’t believe body acceptance messages on social media when they came from a person who had fit the standard body ideals. Some participants felt that positive body image messages from people who were overweight weren’t always effective if their body types didn’t align with their own. Some girls also felt that social media platforms such as Instagram had too much pressure to post the perfect photo, and preferred using VSCO, another social media platform where they felt more comfortable posting themselves without makeup. 

Another strategy used by participants was psychologically distancing themselves from people on social media, such as saying that certain athletes on social media meet body ideals because they have been working for it their whole lives. Girl participants often distanced themselves by acknowledging the use of filters on social media for people to meet body standards. However, both boys and girls were found to step back from social media and focus on reality, trying to not compare themselves to people online which helped mitigate some of these body image issues. 

Discussion

Some participants, especially girls, reported that social media had caused negative body perceptions. In order to avoid these negative body perceptions, some adolescents employed both passive and avoidant strategies (most common) such as avoiding body-related content on social media. The study also found that boys were more likely to seek out body-related content on social media specifically for exercise information, which wasn’t as common among girls. In addition, many girls preferred VSCO instead because they believed there was less pressure to post on VSCO than on Instagram. Furthermore, many participants regardless of gender distanced themselves from body-related content to social media to help their body image; however boys were more likely to have a positive perception of social media than girls. However, due to the fact that fewer boys participated in the study, the generalizability of results related to boys are limited. 

Conclusion

Adolescents, especially girls, reported that social media caused body dissatisfaction. Additionally, boys and girls used different strategies to cope with body image concerns influenced largely by social media, as seen in the study. It was also shown how boys tended to express greater optimism regarding the effectiveness of their strategies, whereas girls more often doubted their ability to avoid negative body image impacts associated with social media use. These findings highlight important gender-based differences and pave the way for future studies to examine the effects of social media on body image. However, these future studies should also investigate the gender differences in body dissatisfaction caused by social media with a larger sample and across different diverse populations, to address the limitations of this study and provide a more holistic perspective. In general, this study underscores the influence social media has over adolescents’ body image and highlights the extent of influence of various social media types.

Journal Article: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.626763/full